All in the Family
by TitansRule
Summary: Jess and Don talk about Danny, Rikki, flowers and girlfriends - an interesting combination that leads to some interesting confessions. Story #36 in my 'Kindred Spirits' series.


**Disclaimer: I do not own CSI: NY.  
****Series: 'Kindred Spirits' – see my profile for the chronological order.  
****Spoilers: **_**All in the Family **_**– everything in bold comes directly from the episode - ; **_**Child's Play**_**; **_**The Thing About Heroes**_**.**

* * *

All in the Family

Jess had known as soon as she reached the crime scene that it was going to be a long day. Any day that started with a sobbing fifteen-year-old girl who had just found the dead body of her murdered father wasn't going to be good. But when she left the interrogation room, she knew she had underestimated the situation. Her heart went out to the younger brother – Charlie – who hadn't been old enough to realise what was going on when he'd been taken from his father, and wasn't old enough again to know not to follow his older brother that day. Maybe if he'd just stayed out of it, his future wouldn't be as messed up as it was.

She was just about to leave and make her way home, when the sight of her partner stopped her, causing her to frown. His case had been deemed an accident and he should have been at home. "**Hey.**" She greeted, stopping in front of his desk. "**Thought you were off today.**"

"**Something came up.**" Don sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "**It…**" He started, leaning back in his chair to look out into the entryway. Apparently not seeing what or who he was looking for, he sighed again. "**It's a long story. How about I tell you later over an Irish coffee?**"

Jess smiled slightly. "**I think I know just the place.**"

It was several months ago now that they had started their tradition of Irish coffee after difficult cases, during the whole mess that had become known as the 'triple threat' due to Mac's stalker; Jess had just been about to head home after her shift when the call came over the radio that a homicide detective and several CSIs were trapped on an out-of-control subway train.

_Jess felt her stomach start a complex tumbling routine and made a swift U-turn, heading back to the subway station on 33rd. She pushed her way through the crowds of people, only resorting to flashing her badge once. When she reached the station, her heart stopped for a second, seeing the familiar yellow crime-scene tape roping off the train, but then she noticed the tiny distance between the 3 train that had lost control and the stationary train in front of it._

_There had been no collision._

"_Flack!" She caught sight of Don standing to one side, talking to a blonde woman she vaguely recognised. "What happened?"_

_Don glanced up at her approach. "Not really sure what to tell you, Angell. One minute, I'm watching Hawkes and Stella check out a dead body; the next, the doors have closed and the train's moving. Danny had to resort to chucking a rock at the signal box; this was not an accident. Check out the numbers."_

_Jess frowned for a moment, then her mind made the connection. "333."_

"_Exactly." Don nodded. "This guy wants someone dead. And he doesn't care who."_

_The blonde he'd been talking to cleared her throat quietly. "Aren't you gonna introduce me?"_

"_Sorry." Don sighed. "Devon, this is my partner, Detective Angell; Angell, this is my girlfriend Devon Trenton."_

"_It's so good to meet you." Devon smiled, shaking her hand, but Jess recognised the look in the other woman's eyes. What did it say about cops as a whole that their girlfriends couldn't trust them to work with other women without cheating on them?_

"_Likewise." Jess returned. "Listen, I'm off-shift; I just wanted to make sure that you … well, hadn't been killed by a rogue subway train. Oh, and Benson wanted me to tell you that everyone's meeting up at Sullivan's for a drink tonight; you in?"_

_Don grinned at her. "After that ride? I'm not sure if I need alcohol or caffeine."_

"_Irish coffee's on me then." Jess smirked. "Best of both worlds. Good luck catching Mac's stalker."_

"_Thanks." Don called after her. "I'm gonna need it."_

Jess's trip down memory lane was interrupted quite abruptly by Danny walking up with a woman she'd never met before.

"**Jess, would you take her inside?**" Don asked quietly.

"**Sure.**" Jess took the woman's arm and led her out of the bullpen towards arraignment. She was a little puzzled by Don's use of her first name; normally, when taking a suspect in, he would call her Detective Angell, not Jess.

They stopped next to the counter and Jess picked up a form. "Name?"

"Rikki Sandoval." The woman answered shakily.

Jess glanced up. "As in Ruben's mother?"

She nodded.

Her confusions answered, Jess sighed, guessing that the woman had let her grief cloud her judgement. She also knew that Don would have called ahead, so signalled for one of the guards to come over, slipping the form back. "You had a call from Detective Flack about Ms. Sandoval?"

"Yes, Detective."

"Alright." Jess nodded to her. "Here she is. I'm sorry about your son, ma'am."

"Thank you." Rikki whispered.

Jess watched the guard lead her away and went back to the bullpen, finding Don in the entryway, watching Danny drive away. "You up for that coffee?"

"Yeah." Don sighed. "Long as it's somewhere quiet; I don't want this getting spread over the precinct."

"I'll drive." Jess put a hand on his shoulder and steered him towards her car.

The journey was quiet; Don was apparently lost in thought and Jess knew better than to push him, instead following the familiar route back to her building.

When she pulled up, he didn't question their location, but followed her silently up to her apartment.

Jess turned the lights on and shut the door firmly behind them, moving into the kitchen and turning on her coffee machine, before pulling some whiskey from the cupboard, watching out of the corner of her eye as Don collapsed onto her couch. "Bad day?"

"That was Ruben Sandoval's mom." Don stated wearily.

"Yeah, I know." Jess handed him a drink. "He lived in Danny's building, right?"

"Next door." Don confirmed. "Danny was the closest thing he had to a father."

Jess winced. "Damn."

"Yeah, he's blaming himself." Don sighed. "Today, she stopped by to give him the brochure for Ruben's memorial service and took his gun on the way out."

Jess paused, lowering the glass before it reached her lips. "Did she use it?"

"No. We got to her just in time." Don answered. "She went after Ollie Barnes, the bodega robber."

Jess frowned. "But, as I remember, the shooter was the owner's sister."

"It was." Don agreed. "But I guess she couldn't get to her. Danny insisted on keeping it quiet; I gave him three hours to find her and then another hour to get her into the precinct … he's blaming himself for what happened; seems to think he owes her something."

"Don, you did the right thing." Jess told him quietly. "Both giving him time and making sure she came in."

Don smiled thinly. "Seems you say that a lot."

"Well, if you'd just inflate your ego a bit." Jess teased lightly. "You need to have a bit more confidence in your decisions, Don; you always do the right thing. You care about your job too much not to."

"I dunno, Jess." Don sighed. "I can't help wondering what I'd do if something happened to my sister and I had a shot at the guy; would I be able to do the right thing?"

"You would." Jess told him. "Because I wouldn't let you do anything else. If something happened to your sister, I wouldn't let you out of my sight, because I know what you're like."

"Alright." Don conceded. "What if it was you?"

"I don't have a sister." Jess reminded him. "Four brothers and the other three wouldn't let me get a look in."

"No." Don shook his head. "What if something happened to you? Who'd stop me from doing something stupid then?"

Jess frowned. "Don, I'm your partner. Hopefully, you'd be able to keep your head the same as if something happened to Danny. What are you getting at?" Her heart quickened slightly. Was he saying he had feelings for her? Feelings that went beyond the partnership they'd formed?

"Nothing." Don answered quickly. "Nothing at all. It's been a long day and I'm rambling."

"You never ramble." Jess stated. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Don set his mug down. "Something my girlfriend said to me the other night got to me."

"She thinks we're more than friends." Jess nodded understandingly.

"No, she thinks … she thinks I care about you more than I care about her." Don corrected, not meeting her eyes.

"Okay." Jess said slowly. "How long have you been with her?"

Don shrugged. "About three months."

Jess raised an eyebrow. "Wait, is she the same girl you were with when James Stanton was killed? I don't think I've ever seen you keep a girl for more than a few weeks before."

"Well, Devon actually has a brain in her head." Don shrugged. "So she gets that I sometimes have to put work above her."

"It's only now that work includes a female co-worker that she has a problem with it." Jess concluded with another nod. "Yeah, I could tell that at the subway; saw it in her eyes. Do you think she's right?"

"Yeah." Don admitted. "That's a bad thing, right?"

Jess hesitated. "I don't know. I know three months is a long time for you, but it's not exactly long-term, is it? I mean, I've got my father and four brothers to consider, but I can honestly say that you're the most important guy in my life right now." She shrugged, feeling her hands shaking a little from the weight of her statement, hoping he would take it platonically and not call her on it. "And I don't know if that would change if I got a boyfriend … maybe eventually, but … I honestly don't know, Don. But I think she is right."

"Yeah?" Don met her eyes. "Why?"

"Because you're talking to me." Jess answered gently. "You've had a bad day, but it's me you're confiding in. Not her."

Don sighed. "She wouldn't understand, Jess. Not like you do." He laughed a little bitterly. "We are so messed up, huh?"

Jess smiled. "That we are. You want another coffee?" At his nod, she stood up. "Then we're going to change the subject, because we are getting too damn depressed."

"Alright. Emily Miller." Don stated, confusing her somewhat; what was less depressing about a dead woman? "Witnesses say she'd been looking at flowers for twenty minutes before she was shot; how does it take that long to pick out flowers for the table?"

"Different flowers have different meanings." Jess answered from the kitchenette. "Didn't any of your girlfriends tell you that?"

"Er, no." Don admitted. "Like what?"

"You seriously don't know?" Jess sniggered. "Well, you'd better brush up on them; something tells me that you'll need them sooner or later."

"Very well then; enlighten me." Don suggested. "How do you pick a bunch of flowers?"

"Well, knowing her favourite flower and colour helps." Jess began. "Or you go with the subliminal messages."

"Which are …?" Don prompted.

"Okay, let's take roses, for example." Jess handed him another glass. "Red roses mean love and a bouquet of twelve means true love. Pink roses can mean admiration or joyfulness. Yellow roses tend to mean friendship. White mean condolences or remembrance. Orange roses mean passion and lavender mean love at first sight."

"And girls just know this?" Don asked, looking slightly bewildered.

"It's an intuition thing." Jess shrugged. "My mother loves flower arranging; she was a stay-at-home mom and used to make arrangements for the local church. I couldn't really get away from it, so I know a little more than most. Like, it's all very well giving a girl a bunch of primroses, but if she knows the meaning, she'd know they mean 'I can't live without you', which is probably not the message you want to get across."

"Okay." Don nodded. "How about one that says "I think you're a great girl, but we're better off as friends"?"

"Striped carnations, maybe. I thought you were gonna say that sooner or later." Jess smirked. "Having trouble?"

Don sighed. "I've never really had to end them before; usually they got fed up with me having to go into work and gave me ultimatums: work or them."

"And you went to work." Jess nodded. "But this time?"

"Anything I say, she twists into something else." Don explained. "Advice would be good here, Jess."

"Okay." Jess rolled her eyes. "Why do men always over-complicate things? Take her out to dinner, don't say anything that she can seize later, do not talk about your relationship at all. Then walk her out, hail her a cab and then look her in the eyes and say, "I'm sorry, but things aren't working out between us." No one in their right mind keeps NYC cab-drivers waiting." Her smirk grew slightly. "I bet you don't do it."

Don raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because you don't want to hurt her; you do care about her just not like that." Jess summarised. "You won't do it."

"I will." Don stated. "And just for that, you owe me lunch when I do."

"Deal." Jess responded. "I've got a good month to figure out where to go."

"Funny." Don was quiet for a few minutes, then took her hand. "Jess …"

The change in his voice caused her to freeze, taking in the conflicting emotions on his face. "What's up?"

"I just want you to know … What you said earlier …" Don took a deep breath. "Even including my mom and my sister … you're still the most important woman in my life right now. Don't let me forget that."

Jess smiled shakily and squeezed his hand. "As if I would."

**

* * *

AN****: Okay, they're getting more difficult (which I did not see coming) since a lot of people have done the aftermath of this episode; hopefully, it made sense and I didn't just ramble on - let me know what you think.**


End file.
